Things That I Find Awesome: ChiRunning, Running with Friends, and High Incline Treadmills

3.16.2013 - At the Tri-Mania NYC ChiRunning Workshop!   From left to right: Me, Rob,  our instructor Vincent Vaccaro (http://tritekcamps.com/index.php), Karen Braswell, and Jim Coniglio.

Things that were awesome since my last post:

(1) Attending the ChiRunning workshop through Tri-Mania NYC and RunKino.  

ChiRunning is by no means a magic bullet, but I am a huge fan.  If you are interested in learning about my ChiRunning experience, scroll to the bottom of this post.

(2) Running in the Palisades with friends.  

3.9.2013: Running in the Palisades.  The photo is blurry because the lens had my sweat on it.  From left to right, Alex, Garth, Lesley, and Scott.

Although our initial plans were to run part of the Bear Mountain 50 mile course at Harriman State Park, Mother Nature decided to dump 15 inches of snow on the trails.  Since most of us wanted to spend our morning running and not fwomping around in the snow, we figured the Palisades would be a better bet.  And it was!  There was still snow, which made things interesting and pretty, but it wasn't so bad that we couldn't get a decent run in.  We started at the Palisades Interstate Park police station and ran the Long Path, the Shore Trail, as well as the trails that connected the two.  As I ran, I ate spam and drank Gatorade and it was glorious.  At some point, my neuroma began acting up, but since my feet were numb because of the snow, I barely felt it.

3.9.2013: Making our way down to the bottom of the cliffs.  You can see Lesley far below  - she  made the descents seem easy!

3.9.2013: Heading back up to the Long Path.

3.9.2013: Doing a mini hill repeat.

(3) Discovering that funny looking treadmill that no one uses in my gym is a super incline treadmill.  

Guess who has been doing climbs at >20% inclines the past week?  That being said, I am feeling a bit sheepish about the fact that I did not check out the treadmill until now, especially since I had an entire conversation with Garth about them a few weeks ago.  Oh well.  I still have 102 days left until Western States!  Plenty of opportunities to climb!

This treadmill can go up to 50%!  So neat!

(4) Running in the snow in Central Park.  

I despise and fear the cold, but I love running in the snow.  A two or three minute walk outside when it is below 50 degrees Fahrenheit turns me into a sad puddle, but I am totally cool with running in below freezing weather.  This is completely silly, I know.  :(

3.16.2013.  Running alongside the Central Park Reservoir.

3.16.2013 - Running in Central Park in the snow.

Things that were not awesome:

(1) The second cortisone shot for the Morton's Neuroma on my right foot is not working as well as I would like.  I received my second shot last Wednesday and things seemed great for a couple of days, but when I went out for a longish run in Central Park, I experienced flares of excruciating pain after an hour or so.  Each time it happened, I stopped and stretched my foot a bit and was able to run a few more miles before the neuroma flared up again.  While I think I can do this for at least fifty miles, I am not sure if this method will work for 100.  Guess we'll see what happens at Umstead 100 in a few weeks.  As for now, I am going to keep on eating the serrapeptase, going to physical therapy, and wearing boring shoes (supportive flats).  I still have one more cortisone shot left, but at this point, I am not expecting much.  I think I am going to move on to alcohol shot treatment next.

(2) I seem to be developing a Morton's Neuroma in my left foot.  As long as I am in sneakers or high heels, my foot feels completely normal.  But as soon as I go barefoot, I experience the familiar MN symptoms.  I still have not decided what I am going to do about this.  

My ChiRunning Ramble:

A couple of years ago, I purchased the book, ChiRunning: A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-Free Running.  I read the first few chapters and found the ideas interesting enough that I attempted to put them into practice, but I never felt that I fully grasped the material.  Since I never experienced common running-related injuries, such as knee issues and shin splints, I was fine with this.  However, ever since my Morton's Neuroma reared its ugly head a few months back, I have become much more interested in seeking out ways to run as efficiently and painlessly as possible. 

As luck would have it, a high school and running buddy of mine, Hideki Kinoshita, was giving away one free registration to a ChiRunning workshop through his website and facebook page, RunKino.  All I had to do was to explain why I wanted to learn ChiRunning and be fortunate enough for Kino to select my entry.  After I won, I also registered my boyfriend for the class.  Rob is still relatively new at running and even though he is progressing quickly, he is still experiencing all the hurt that I somehow managed to skip when I began my running journey.  Since I still do not know how I managed that, (And to be perfectly frank, even if I did, I am terrible at teaching people I love how to do things.) I figured introducing Rob to a real coach would be best.  Also, I felt kind of bad taking a free class and wanted to pay for something, somehow.

Interestingly enough, I never attended a running workshop until now.  In fact, the last time I attended a sport-related class was years ago, when I was on the swim team in college.  And I wouldn't even count that because I was so completely mentally checked out - I went to practices and dutifully completed all the assigned workouts, but I was never instructed on improving my swim technique, nutrition, or . . . pretty much anything.  The main reason why I was on the swim team was because I found swimming meditative.  One time I was feeling so zen in the water, I did not realize that the pool that I was swimming in lost half its water until I tried doing a flip turn and I hit my head.  Oops.  In my defense, I was doing back stroke - so it's not like I could see the bottom of the pool until it was too late.

Anyway.  Back to ChiRunning.  My formal introduction to ChiRunning took place at the Tri-Mania NYC Expo this past Saturday.  Our class featured instructor Vincent Vaccaro, a certified ChiRunning and ChiWalking coach.  He has a website for his company, Tri Tek, which provides more information on Vincent's extensive athletic background and his schedule of workshops.  Apparently, his training is geared towards triathletes, but ChiRunning is completely relevant to ultrarunners as well.  ChiRunning is all about maximizing your form to minimize fatigue.  And since triathlons and ultramarathons are both endurance sports that guarantee exhaustion, minimizing fatigue is a good thing.  

Vincent was a fantastic instructor.  He was clearly knowledgeable about his subject and very comfortable with teaching.  He had us engaged right away and I felt every minute of the workshop was time well-spent.  Vincent also had an assistant, Dave, whose last name I never learned, but he was great, too, especially towards the end when we did our running exercises.  The two hours flew, but I picked up a lot more in his workshop than I did by reading the ChiRunning book and articles and watching the Youtube videos.  That being said, I plan on rereading the ChiRunning book, because I think I will appreciate it more now that I have seen the techniques in action.  

Vincent started off his class by introducing the basic tenet of ChiRunning: Posture, posture, posture.  Which makes sense - when we are standing straight, our joints are all aligned and our skeleton is supporting our weight.  The best thing to do when we run is to make sure we maintain this alignment so that our skeleton continues to do the supporting.  Instead, we often make the mistake of slumping over or slightly bending at the waist when we are fatigued, which requires our leg and core muscles to support more body weight than they should.  If we focus on keeping good posture, we decrease the amount of work our muscles have to do, making us more efficient.  To keep our posture in alignment, we need to make sure we land our feet directly underneath or slightly behind the body, in line with our hips and shoulders.  To help with this, Vincent had us imagine three dots: one on our shoulder, hip, and foot.  He suggested that when Rob and I run together, we should check each other's alignment by making sure those dots are in a relatively straight line.  

Another essential tenet of ChiRunning is the idea of letting gravity work for us, instead of against us.  By adding a slight lean when we run, our bodies naturally fall forward and we end up using gravity to push us forward instead of our leg muscles.  The trick is to lean from the ankles, and not the waist.  We initially practiced this by standing about a sneaker's length away from the wall and while keeping our backs straight (Remember, posture!), we leaned forward until we practically fell into the wall.  Once we learned what it felt like to lean with our ankles, we did a few exercises where we experienced what it was like to lean in different amounts.  It was interesting - in leaning forward, my feet automatically had to land directly underneath me.  

Vincent also had us focus on cadence by having us run with a metronome.  Running cadence is the same thing as your foot turnover rate, or how many steps you take per minute.  When you take fewer steps per minute, your body is suspended in the air for a greater amount of time, causing a greater force to be applied when your feet hit the ground.  Since most running injuries are impact-related, this is kind of a big deal.  The most efficient stride/min is at least 180 strides per minute.  Although I have already downloaded a bunch of metronome apps on my iPhone since Saturday to practice my running cadence, I decided that it would be way more fun to run to music, so with a quick google search, I found a great dailymile thread discussing music that averages 180 beats per minute.  Rob, being awesome, is already compiling a playlist for me ;).

An important lesson that I took to heart was that I just don't move my arms enough when I run.  Instead of using my arms to propel my body forward, I keep them relatively stationary.  While I knew this on a theoretical level, I did not realize how bad my arm form was until Vincent had us perform a simple exercise where another runner stood behind me and placed her hands where my elbows should hit as I ran in place.  As I swung my arms the way I was supposed to, it felt really, really strange.  My main issue is that I constantly tense my shoulders, which doesn't allow me to swing my arms as easily as I should as I run.  Even as I type this, I feel the tell-tale twinges in the middle of my back, letting me know that my shoulders are unhappy.  I think I am going to start posting signs all over my office and house to remind me to relax.

In case you couldn't already tell, I am already a ChiRunning convert.  I can go on and on about all the things that Vincent taught in his introductory class, but if you are interested in learning more about ChiRunning, there are way better articles out there that you can find easily via Google.  I would also recommend purchasing the ChiRunning book, but I think the best thing would be to actually attend a workshop in your area.  Introductory ChiRunning classes are really not that expensive, especially if you consider the potential savings of hundreds of dollars and time spent at the doctor's by preventing injury from occurring in the first place.  

ChiRunning isn't a magic bullet.  I know that I have a ways to go before I even scratch the surface on becoming a more efficient runner, but as I plan on running ultras for a while, I look forward to the process.  Thanks so much again Vincent at Tri Tek and RunKino for giving me this great opportunity in starting my ChiRunning journey.  

So! Excited! To just go out and ruuuuuun.

Peanut Leap Cascade at Palisades Interstate Park. 

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Workout Types(s): Trails and strength training (a.k.a. lifting heavy garbage bags)

Miles: 9+

Where: Palisades Interstate Park

Notes: Good times.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Workout Types(s): Road running

Miles: 8+

Where: Central Park

Notes: My Morton's Neuroma hit by mile 6 and it was unpleasant, but I was pleased because it normally starts by mile 4 when I train on roads.

Training notes:

Alrighty, I am back in business and am re-entering Training Beast Mode.  As of this weekend, I am officially done with the winter ills and am so (!) excited(!) to go out and just ruuuuun.  

Saturday 

My run on Saturday morning was glorious.  Besides crashing a couple of times (I was a bit overeager in hurtling down a hill), I felt really in tune in my body and managed to find this wonderful rhythm with my legs and feet that made me feel like I could run forever.

If you want an intense workout, going up and down these cliffs is a seriously good time.

Trail connecting the Shore Trail to the Long Path.

Sadly, I had to cut my training short as I had plans to volunteer with a local trail organization doing post-Hurricane Sandy clean up.  One of the requirements for Western States 100, Vermont 100, and Wasatch 100 is to volunteer at least eight hours either at an ultramarathon or with a trail volunteer group.  Eight hours is a pretty small time commitment, but I think the race directors' objective is to encourage ultrarunners who have never volunteered before to start because once you do, it is really difficult not to want to volunteer again.  When you volunteer at a race, you really appreciate the work involved in making sure the race is a success; when you do volunteer trail work, you realize how much effort is necessary in maintaining the paths we love.  Also, it's fun!  I always meet the most interesting people and I always learn something new, running and/or general life-wise.

Getting instructions from Palisades Interstate Park trail supervisor Christina Fehre.

This past weekend, I was fortunate to volunteer with an AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps team who came all the way from Ohio to help out with post-Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.  We worked with Palisades Interstate Park trail supervisor Christina Fehre to help clean up the debris washed up along the Shore Trail.

Garbage ready to be shipped out.

And there was quite a lot of it.  I personally collected two large garbage bags completely filled with mostly plastic bottles of all types.  Other items collected were tires, barrels, styrofoam, insulation, plastic bags . . . it made me sad to see so much trash along the trail, but I was really glad something was being done about it. 

Lugging along a garbage bag along this rock scramble was entertaining.

We found some makeshift swings.  We weren't sure if they were sturdy, but they looked so inviting! 

We were scheduled to work for only four hours on Saturday, but there will be future volunteer trips as the weather gets nicer.  Next weekend I am supposed to volunteer with the Bearclaw group at Longpond Ironworks State Park, but since I want to do some major mileage this week, my plans are still tentative.

Sunday

Sunday's run was uneventful.  I ran the Central Park loop and reservoir loop and saw a few folks along the way, including Rick Thiounn and his fiancee, Lauren Healy as well as Stephen England, another Western States-bound runner.  My Morton's neuroma on my right foot started to act up by mile 6, but it wasn't nearly as excruciating as before and so I was able to finish my run.  I think my regimen of acupuncture/serrapeptase/physical therapy/change in footwear is working.  That being said, I am still visiting a podiatrist later today because it never hurts to get another opinion. 

Alrighty, so this week should be a blast.  Lots of climbing, lots of running, and lots of strength training.  I can't wait!

Mount Beacon: Perfect place for mountain repeats! (Except when it is covered by ice!)

Mount Beacon: Perfect place for mountain repeats!

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Workout Types(s): Trail running, road running

Miles ran: 18ish
Where: Palisades Interstate Park

Temperature: High 20s
What I wore: Elita turtleneck, Northface fleece, random vest, elita thermal leggings, Adidas leggings, 2XU calf sleeves, smartwool socks, Bondi Band
Sneakers: Inov-8 Rock-lites 315

How I felt: Happy
What I thought about while running: Life is good.

Food consumed: Zico coconut water, two zone bars

Notes: Ran from my house to the Palisades, ran along the Palisades, and then ran back.  Totally bumped into my gastroenterologist, who was out hiking with his wife.  Cool.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Workout Types(s): Mountain repeats

Miles ran: 20ish
Where: Mt. Beacon

Temperature: High teens, low 20s
What I wore: Elita turtleneck, Northface fleece, random vest, elita thermal leggings, Adidas leggings, 2XU calf sleeves, smartwool socks, Bondi Band, microspikes
Sneakers: Inov-8 Rock-lites 315

How I felt: Pretty good.
What I thought about while running: I could spend all day doing this.

Food consumed: Zico coconut water, one zone bar, dduk boki (Korean food).

Notes: Why can’t this mountain be closer to me??!!! 

Monday, February 4, 2013

Workout Types(s): Recovery run

Miles ran: 6
Where: My neighborhood

Temperature: Low 20s
What I wore: Elita turtleneck, Northface fleece, Adidas leggings, random ankle socks, Bondi Band
Sneakers: Inov-8 Rock-lites 315

How I felt: Brrrrrisk.
What I thought about while running: Don’t recall.

Food consumed: Nothing.

Notes: So hard to get out of bed this morning.  Good thing I wore my running clothes before I went to sleep. 

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Nothing yet.  Will probably climb, run, and strength train tonight.

This weekend was fantastic because I was able to stick to mostly running in the woods.  On Saturday, I ran the Long Path in Palisades Interstate Park.  The Long Path begins at Fort Lee Historical Park, parallels the Hudson River in North Jersey and makes its way all the way up to Albany.  For those unfamiliar with the Palisades Interstate Park, it's a park that hugs the Hudson River and starts about a half a mile south of the George Washington Bridge and extends all the way past the New Jersey/New York state line.  It is easily accessible via public transportation from Manhattan and so it is a common training ground for some of my trail-loving Manhattan friends.  The park has two major trails, the Long Path and the Shore Trail and a few little trails that connect the two.  The Long Path is on the cliffs and the Shore Trail is, you guessed it, on the Hudson River shoreline.  In between the trails is Henry Hudson Drive, a popular road for cyclists and road runners.

From my house, it is about a 5K, mostly uphill run to the Palisades, which made me nice and toasty by the time I hit the Long Path.  I ran six miles on the Long Path and then took the Huyler's Landing trail down to the Shore Path.  Since I was pressed for time and I was not running the Shore Path as fast as I would have liked, I had to leave the trail, climb a short distance to Henry Hudson Drive and then book it as fast I could back home.  

Sunday's run was a lot more interesting.  When I first found out that I got into Western States and started asking around for advice on where and how to train, nearly everyone said that I had to practice long ascents and descents, the longer the better.  This worried me, because besides Harriman State Park with its Bear and Bald Mountains, I didn't really know of any longish climbs in the area.  

Fortunately, an ultrarunning friend and Leadville-veteran, Michael Oliva told me about Mount Beacon, which is located in the Fishkill, NY, only an hour drive north from my house.  There are a couple of approaches to the peak, but the fastest and steepest (and best for my Grand Slam training) route is via Mount Beacon Park in Beacon, NY.  Using the red blazed "Casino Trail," you start at an elevation of 200' and finish at 1400' in less than two miles.  Once you get to the top, there is a fire lookout tower that you can climb for an additional 200 feet of altitude.  It sounded perfect for mountain repeats.  Mike said I should be able to climb back and forth easily at least ten times in order to prepare for Leadville.  That Sunday, I decided that I would do five to get an even twenty miles.  

Getting to the trail was easy.  The Mount Beacon Park parking lot is located right at the trail base, so I just drove, parked, threw my backpack on and started running.  And then stopped almost immediately because I saw a very curious tree that was dotted with colorful balls.  When I walked closer, I realized that the balls were actually pieces of gum left by hikers throughout the years.  Cool, but gross.  

The gum tree.

After taking a few photos of the tree, I kept going and then stopped again because I encountered some stairs.  In my limited research of Mount Beacon, I didn't realize the first part of the ascent involved climbing about two hundred steps to the actual trail.  But since the stairs were going in the right direction, I went up and finally saw my first red trail marker.

Hello, trail marker.

So I bounded up the trail.  It was steep, but definitely runnable.  However, I resisted the temptation to just run and focused on practicing my speed hiking, a very useful skill to have in trail ultramarathons.

Easy peasy.

Hello, itty bitty rocks.

The ice was getting annoying, so I threw on my microspikes.

Hello, annoying ice.

After less than twenty, twenty five minutes of hiking and taking pictures, I reached the first major lookout point.  According to my quick wikipedia search, back in the 1900s, this very spot used to have a popular casino and there was a railway that went up and down the mountain; at that time, it was the world's steepest funicular.  Everything is now in ruins, but the view was still pretty nice.

The view.  Hello, Rob.

Abandoned railway funicular stop.

Inside the old railway.

After taking a few photos, I kept on following the trail.  Although this ascent wasn't nearly as steep, it was definitely icy:

My microspikes came in handy during this part.

And then I was at the top!  At the top of Mount Beacon was a fire lookout tower which offered 360 views of the Hudson Highlands.  Unfortunately, the entrance was padlocked.  

The fire lookout tower!

Should I climb it?

This may or may not be a view from top of the lookout tower.

This also may or may not be a view from top of the lookout tower.  Look at those itty bitty trails!

While I was happy to be at the top, I was a bit sad because I wanted to take some photos of myself and there was no one around.  However, from where I stood, I could see a group of hikers on another peak, about a mile away.  This will sound crazy, but I just knew that they were Korean.  And if they were indeed one of my brethren (I am Korean), at least one of them would be more than happy to take my photo! 

If you squint really hard, you can see a group of hikers.

So I ran, ran, ran over to the next peak.  And by golly, I was right.  They were Korean!  And they were cooking something that smelled delicious.  As soon as I said hello, they told me to sit down and eat with them.   Turns out they were cooking ddeokboki and it was spicy and delicious.  After I ate a few and thanked them a million times, one of the women was nice enough to snap my photo.

Hello, my people.  

Hiking photo: Achieved.

On my way back, I could see the lookout tower, and more importantly, I could see little figures just hanging around the top.  If I ran really fast, I could get there before they left and they could take a photo of me at the peak!  So I ran, ran, ran back as fast as I could to the top of Mount Beacon. 

A view of the lookout tower from the other peak.

Unfortunately, I just didn't move fast enough and was less than a quarter mile from the lookout tower, when I ran into the folks hiking back down.  However, by this point, I realized that there would probably be more hikers, so I contented myself by power hiking up and down Mount Beacon until I encountered another group of people.  After all, I was there to train, not to take pictures!  

But finally, I ran into a cool couple from the area and they were more than happy to take my photo:

Jumping photo: Achieved.

The rest of the day before the sun went down was pretty much the same.  Up and down and down and up.  Climbing up was pretty easy - I am starting to think all my stair mill workouts are actually accomplishing something.  However, going down was not as productive as I would have liked, mostly because I could never get a good rhythm going for more than a minute.  Parts of the trail were just much too icy and at certain points, I needed to sit and slide down because running down was just too dangerous, even in microspikes.  But sliding down was a lot of fun, even if I didn't reap any training benefits.

Finally, at around five o'clock, I decided to call it quits.  My iPhone was dying and it was growing dark and I was getting cold.  After saying good bye to Mount Beacon, I drove to Beacon's downtown area and looked for the nearest cafe so I could drink something hot.  The only thing I could find was a wine bar and it was deserted because apparently the Super Bowl was on.  Oops.  I totally forgot about the Super Bowl.  Oh well.  The Grand Slam of Ultrarunning is my Super Bowl ;).  

Time to go home.